Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine: 150 year old people?

According to the compilers of these records, France can claim the honor of having possessed the oldest woman of modern times. This venerable dame, having attained one hundred and fifty years, died peacefully in a hamlet in the Haute Garonne, where she had spent her prolonged existence, subsisting during the closing decade of her life on goat’s milk and cheese. The woman preserved all her mental faculties to the last, but her body became attenuated to an extraordinary degree, and her skin was like parchment.” – virginia.edu

Advice on living a long time:

According to Hufeland and other authorities on longevity, sobriety, regular habits, labor in the open air, exercise short of fatigue, calmness of mind, moderate intellectual power, and a family life are among the chief aids to longevity. For this reason we find the extraordinary instances of longevity among those people who amidst bodily labor and in the open air lead a simple life, agreeable to nature. Such are farmers, gardeners, hunters, soldiers, and sailors. In these situations man may still maintain the age of one hundred and fifty or even one hundred and sixty. … – virginia.edu

Oldest Canadian ever verified and oldest living person verified 1997-1998.

What were Jeanne’s secrets of longevitiy?

Calment was born in Arles and lived there for all of her life.[1] Her father, Nicolas, was a shipbuilder, and her mother, Marguerite, was from a family of millers. Her close family members also lived to an advanced age: her older brother, François, lived to the age of 97, her father to 93, and her mother to 86. In 1896, at the age of 21, she married her second cousin (grandson of her great-uncle) Fernand Calment,[4] a wealthy store owner. His wealth made it possible for Calment never to have to work; instead she led a relaxed lifestyle, pursuing hobbies like tennis, cycling, swimming, rollerskating, piano and opera.[1]

… Calment’s remarkable health presaged her later record. At age 85, she took up fencing, and at 100, she was still riding a bicycle.

She gave up smoking only five years before her death[11] at the age of 117 years. Though she relapsed for a year she finally gave up smoking at the age of 119 years (blindness made it difficult for her to light a cigarette, and she was reluctant to ask others for help). When asked on one occasion for her prescription for a long life, she mentioned garlic, vegetables, cigarettes, red wine, and avoiding brawls. On another occasion, she ascribed her longevity and relatively youthful appearance for her age to olive oil, which she said she poured on all her food and rubbed onto her skin, as well as a diet of port wine, and nearly 2 pounds of chocolate eaten every week.[8]

Calment lived on her own until shortly before her 110th birthday, when it was decided that she needed to be moved to a nursing home. However, Calment was still in good shape, and was able to walk until a fall at age 114 years and 11 months, which required surgery.[4][9]

I try to each chocolate (without sugar) daily. I wonder if pure tobacco cigarettes, without all the modern deadly additives, has any health benefits? Hard to imagine that it would. There may be another difference regarding what she was smoking: